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Tangy Multi-mushroom Soup

A soup made with various dried mushrooms, water, sherry or rice wine, soy sauce, vinegar, egg whites, and scallions.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and sherry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,176 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

The recipe

Time30 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Boil 2 cups of water and pour it over the shiitake, black fungus, and any other dried mushrooms you may have chosen.

  2. Let the mixture sit in a bowl for 30 minutes.

  3. When the mushrooms have finished soaking, squeeze the juice out of them and cut them into bite-sized pieces; do not use the stems.

  4. Pour the soaking juice into a large soup pan with 5½ cups of water.

Make the soup

  1. Bring the water and all the mushrooms except the enoki mushrooms to a boil.

  2. Add rice wine or sherry, soy sauce, and vinegar.

  3. Reduce the heat and allow the mixture to simmer for at least 10 minutes.

  4. Mix the cornstarch and the remaining ½ cup of cool water in a cup.

  5. Whisk the cornstarch mixture into the hot soup.

  6. Drizzle the egg whites into the soup, whisking or stirring constantly.

  7. Add the white pepper.

Serve

  1. Wait 2–3 minutes, then serve the soup, garnishing each bowl with scallions and enoki mushrooms.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Mushroom + sherrytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Sherry + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together104 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  3. Cider + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together402 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Sherry + vinegartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Vinegar + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dried shiitake mushrooms
Give deep, savory mushroom flavor through their soaking liquid and tender pieces.
Egg whites
Form soft, silky ribbons in the hot broth as they set.
Cornstarch
Thickens the broth so it feels silky and coats the mouth.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the savory broth.
Soy sauce
Adds salty, savory depth and color to the broth.

The step that matters

Drizzling the egg whites. Egg whites must go into a hot, gently moving broth while you whisk constantly; otherwise they clump into cooked lumps instead of fine silky strands. Cornstarch must be thickened in a simmering broth, so add it only after the mixture is mixed smooth with cool water.

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, sherry, cider, vinegar, sauce, egg):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  3. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, sherry, cider, vinegar, sauce, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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